SIR – I fully support everything Ashley Owen of Animal Aid says (Letters, April 23). I personally find any animal experimentation disgusting and believe animal testing is no better than animal torture.

One of the biggest increases in animal testing is due to the EU’s REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Directive, which mandates that all chemical substances must be tested to ensure they are safe, even substances that might have been used for years without any problems.

In an 2009 article by Thomas Hartung and Constanza Rovida in the Nature journal, they estimated that 54 million vertebrate animals would be used under REACh.

I’d like to see a national referendum on the question of banning animal testing, I am confident when people see the kind of ‘experiments’ animals have to endure then I believe most will support a ban.

Jason Smith, UKIP Bradford chairman, Woodlands Avenue, Queensbury